Help and Hope When It’s Needed MostFood, utility assistance, clothing, Christmas programs — The Salvation Army’s Material Assistance and Seasonal Support (MASS) provides all of this and more.

Help from Material Assistance means that families can spend their limited money on keeping a roof over their heads instead of that month’s electric bill. It means getting help setting up a budget, bringing home groceries and not having to decide between school supplies or new coats for their kids.

Seasonal Support — like the program that gives fans to the elderly, disabled and others in need — is part of The Salvation Army’s mission to provide help to anyone anytime. Other programs include Back to School, when thousands of fully packed backpacks were distributed in 2014, and the Toyland, Adopt-a-Family and food voucher services held around Christmas.

Tiffanie McCowin, program director for MASS, knows how important her work is. “A lot of people who come here have never had to ask for help before, and due to circumstances — job loss, displacement by fire, divorce, domestic violence — they’ve run out of options. We see a lot of people who feel hopeless.”

Just one example of the many people MASS helps every day was a mother and her three children who were just about to move into a house after staying in a homeless shelter. The problem? The woman had an old utility bill from 2010 for over $300 she thought she had to pay before moving. The support team got in touch with the provider and was able to clear up the old bill issues, ensuring the family could move in on time. On top of that, MASS was also able to help with the hefty utility deposit.

These stories are typical of the dedicated people working at MASS. Everyone’s story is unique — but the gratitude for help is universal.

Tiffanie added, “That’s why I love what I do. Whether we see it or not, what we do makes a difference.”

34% of the time people who were referred to other services followed through with them, decreasing their reliance on emergency help (647 of 1,866)